A quiet economic calendar in European trading hours hints the consolidative mode noted in Asia is likely to continue. FTSE 100 stock index futures are pointing lower ahead of the opening bell however, warning that risk aversion may yet emerge into the end of the trading week. Such an outcome is likely to bode ill for risk-geared FX including the Aussie and New Zealand Dollars while boosting safety-geared alternatives, notably the Japanese Yen.

Later in the day, the spotlight will turn to a round of scheduled commentary from a range of Federal Reserve policy officials. A speech from Minneapolis Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota is likely to take top billing. Mr Kocherlakota was the only member of the rate-setting FOMC committee to dissent from the Fed’s latest decision, saying the somewhat more ambiguous language in the central bank’s forward guidance framework “weakens the credibility of [it’s] commitment to return inflation to the 2 percent target [and] fosters policy uncertainty that hinders economic activity.”